


Hell-sent creatures

by mckvch (RaiseYourVoice)



Series: Tumblr prompts [7]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Attempt at Humor, First Meetings, Flirting, Horseback Riding, Horses, M/M, Not Beta Read, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 23:02:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8597179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaiseYourVoice/pseuds/mckvch
Summary: "But why horse riding," Magnus continued to complain, his voice close to whining now and he tried to look at Raphael with wide, pleading eyes. Which, of course, didn't do squat to make the other change his decision and he was only met with another wide grin."Because you hate horses," Raphael replied in a matter of fact tone, shrugging with an unsettling sweet smile."Hate is such a strong and ugly word. I prefer to say that I don't trust these hell-sent creatures of clearly demonic descent!"





	

**Author's Note:**

> [This](http://fangtasticsaphael.tumblr.com/post/153396650482) is the post with the prompt and [this](http://fangtasticsaphael.tumblr.com/post/152785293502) is the list with the date fic memes this idea is from.
> 
>  
> 
> _#68 horseback riding_

"Remind me again _why_ I agreed to this?" Magnus heaved a long suffering sigh, especially when he caught his best friend's bright smile. Raphael barely showed tiny smiles but the thought of putting Magnus through the worst horrors seemed to be reason enough for a face-splitting grin.

"Because you forced me on the worst blind date ever and you owe me one," Raphael replied with a shrug and pushed the gate open that led to a rather large fenced-in area with several buildings. The distinct smell of animals already reached their noses and Magnus looked even more horrified now than he did ten minutes earlier. Raphael was clearly enjoying this way too much and Magnus decided to give the other a devil's costume for his birthday because it would show his best friend's personality perfectly.

"But why _horse riding_ ," Magnus continued to complain, his voice close to whining now and he tried to look at Raphael with wide, pleading eyes. Which, of course, didn't do squat to make the other change his decision and he was only met with another wide grin.

"Because you hate horses," Raphael replied in a matter of fact tone, shrugging with an unsettling sweet smile.

" _Hate_ is such a strong and ugly word. I prefer to say that I don't _trust_ these hell-sent creatures of clearly demonic descent!"

"Right..." Raphael shook his head, amusement still very clear on his features and sometimes Magnus really wondered why on earth he thought befriending this spawn of Satan had ever seemed like a good idea. Fuck the whole _raised a good catholic_ palaver and always wearing the delicate little gold cross around his neck like a well-behaved boy: Raphael was decidedly evil!

* * *

Of course, Raphael only led him inside and spoke to the first person working at the stable to inform them that Magnus had booked a riding lesson today and when everything was settled, he said his goodbyes to Magnus and _left_. The lesson was supposed to be two hours long and Raphael didn't even want to stay and watch him fail miserably but left him all alone in this ~~house~~ stable of horrors. Magnus could hear the horses and, even worse, _smell_ them. He wasn't too sure if he wanted to cry, gag or just run. But he knew Raphael and the bastard would probably ask if Magnus had actually attended the damn lesson so there was no getting out of this misery.

"No need to be nervous. The first lesson is just to get to know the basics about the horses and getting a feel for riding one," the young woman by the name of Lydia told him with a friendly smile and gestured for him to follow. At least they left the stable again and headed towards a house that looked like the main building.

"Alec, your student is here," she called as soon as they entered the building and Magnus wondered what kind of unkempt hillbilly he would have to deal with for the next two hours. The thought was immediately wiped from his mind when one of the doors opened and a tall, young and very much not unkempt young man stepped into the room. Dark, slightly curly hair that almost fell into brown eyes framed by thick lashes and the rather boyish face was accented by a dusting of stubble that almost caused Magnus's mind to drift right into the gutter.

When the handsome guy greeted him with nothing more but a brief "Hi, I'm Alec" Magnus felt like he might have melted a tiny bit at the delicious sound of the other's deep voice. Maybe Raphael wasn't that evil after all, even though Magnus doubted that his best friend would have brought him to this place if he knew someone perfectly matching Magnus's taste was working here.

"I'm assuming that's short for Alexander?" Magnus couldn't help but ask and after the other nodded, he felt his lips curl into a brilliant smile.

"It's nice to meet you, _Alexander_. My name is Magnus." He just had to make immediate use of the knowledge of the other's full name and felt a lot better rolling off his tongue than _Alec_ probably would. Alexander blinked at him for being called by his full name but didn't correct him, only hummed with a curt little nod and gestured towards the door for Magnus to follow.

* * *

Magnus was kind of proud of himself that he had managed to get close to the horse without being obviously wary of the animal and partly helped to get it ready even though he had left most of the work to Alexander who looked weirdly sexy while saddling this damn ~~demon~~ horse. And it slowly dawned on him that he was supposed to get on that _thing_ , that he was supposed to learn the basics of riding a horse. Despite the nice view Alexander provided with his sole existence, Magnus felt the urge to flee the scene creep up on him again because he would prefer not to get too close to the horse.

"So, why did you book a lesson when you're clearly uncomfortable even looking at a horse?" Alexander's voice drew him back to reality and Magnus's eyes widened, his heartbeat picking up at the thought that the other had noticed his admittedly ridiculous almost-fear of these animals. He wasn't one to get easily embarrassed - in fact, Magnus was usually a master at embarrassing his friends but never himself - so this made the situation even weirder and he felt slightly out of his depth.

"I'm not uncomfortable looking at a horse. It's not my fault that there's something more interesting to look at - or shall I say _someone_ more interesting to look at?" Magnus couldn't help but wink at Alexander, feeling a lot more sure of himself when he was able to flirt someone. Being flirty and playful came to him naturally. Alexander blinked a few times and seemed like he was about to ask a question but then his eyes widened a little and his cheeks actually flushed a light shade of pink, obviously catching on to what Magnus was implying not so subtly.

"Well, uh, you still don't seem to be too comfortable around horses," Alexander said, not addressing the flirty comment and Magnus felt a tiny bit disappointed that it wasn't acknowledged.

"I'm just a little wary of them after one tried to eat me when I was a child, no big deal. And I wasn't the one who booked the lesson, it was my devilish best friend to get back at me," Magnus gave in, finally explaining his discomfort despite not wanting to embarrass himself even further in front of this gorgeous young man.

"It tried to eat you?" Alexander sounded like he was holding back laughter, which was kind of surprising seeing as he had looked rather grumpy almost the whole time up until now.

"Yes. When I was a little kid I wanted to feed a horse but it decided that it rather wanted to eat my whole hand," Magnus explained with a glare towards the horse as if it had been the one to blame, "fortunately it didn't bite off my fingers."

Alexander looked even more amused now, eyebrows raise, and Magnus actually felt the tiniest bit of warmth spreading in his cheeks. He had expected this day to turn into a nightmare but not the kind of nightmare where he ended up blushing because of a ridiculously handsome young man that chose to spend his life taking care of demonic creatures!

"So it's basically the same as for people who got bitten by a dog and are scared of dogs afterwards."

"I'm not _scared_ of horses. I'm simply convinced they are evil demons," Magnus replied and realised that he probably shouldn't have said that part out loud in front of Alexander because the guy would probably think he was some nutcase, _well done_.

This time, Alexander didn't manage to hold back the laughter bubbling up in his throat and he didn't even apologise for laughing at Magnus but reached into his pocket before presenting a cube of sugar to Magnus in the palm of his hand.

"Maybe we should use this lesson to help you try to overcome your totally-not-fear of horses. Take this and give it to her, keep your palm flat and fingers outstretched, this way there's no risk of accidentally losing your fingers."

"I'm not going to to--"

Alexander stepped next to him, grabbed his hand and placed the sugar in the palm of his hand before pulling a wide-eyed Magnus closer to the horse tied to a pole outside of the stable. The animal huffed and eyed him warily but it stepped closer and sniffed the air, noticing the treat. Magnus would have pulled his hand back but he was slightly frozen and Alexander's grip was pretty strong, though still weirdly gentle. Before Magnus was able to process what was happening, he already felt the surprisingly soft nostrils of the horse press into his palm, hot breath fanning over his skin and then the sugar was gone, disappearing into the animal's mouth and absolutely no harm was done to his hand.

"See? Nothing evil about horses," Alexander commented and his fingers lingered wrapped around Magnus's hand a little longer than strictly necessary before letting go again. Magnus noticed he had stopped breathing and he sucked in a bit of air, heart hammering against his ribs and nervous energy rushing through his body at what had just happened. But he had to admit, it hadn't been as bad as expected. He still didn't trust the damn horse but maybe he could be convinced that this particular horse wasn't as demonic as the one he had met as a child.

* * *

It took Magnus about ten minutes to stop glaring at Alexander for forcing him to give a treat to the horse and half an hour after this incident the charming smile and pretty eyes of the other had honestly managed to get him to agree to try climbing into the saddle. Magnus regretted his weakness for gorgeous boys and once again cursed Raphael's existence because he was to blame for Magnus's predicament! This was at least ten times worse than the catastrophic blind date he had sent Raphael on.

Magnus was always graceful in his movements and even though he had never actually climbed into a saddle, he did know how he was supposed to do it. But he decided that maybe he could still get out of this if he just tried to be as clumsy as possible. Someone who was unable to get into the saddle was clearly not fit to ride a horse, right? Wrong. Alexander clearly didn't play along because he simply put his hands on Magnus and helped him into the saddle with surprising - and very sexy - strength.

Magnus expected Alexander to grab the reins and use them to lead the horse for a little walk but instead, he suddenly swung onto the horse as well, sitting just behind the saddle and his front pressed against Magnus's back. He barely managed to hold back a surprised gasp and the strong arms encircling his body to reach for the reins made him temporarily forget that he was honestly sitting on such an evil creature.

He never had trouble coming up with some comment but right now Magnus's mind felt frighteningly empty and being this close to Alexander's actually made him more nervous than the horse suddenly moving at the other's gentle nudge into its sides.

Magnus had expected the two-hour session to feel like it lasted an eternity but it was over surprisingly quickly and when Alexander asked him if he was interested in coming back for more lessons, he honestly replied with an "I have to think about it but you could give me you number and I will make sure to inform you about my decision" and he actually succeeded with it, leaving the equestrian farm with a new number in his contacts and a smile plastered on his face - to Raphael's obvious displease.


End file.
